The Standard-Times

October 17, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

EXETER â Drivers traveling on Ten Rod Road last Thursday were treated to an amazing site: the entire exterior of the historic Chestnut Hill Baptist Churchâs belfry had been taken down, leaving behind a skeleton made of tree trunks surrounding an ancient bell.
As contractors from Keach Framing removed the last remnants â dealt a death blow by Tropical Storm Irene â church members working on the ground put the finishing touches on the new louvers theyâd built to create a crown for the venerable meeting house.

October 16, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN â The atmosphere in the Aloxi salon on Boston Neck Road is typically raucous. Women â and some brave men â will understand what I mean.
The three beauty professionals who are fluffing, buffing, curling, coloring and snipping are also joking, teasing and sharing the kind of banter only found in such an environment where secrets are shared and news travels faster than CNN.

October 15, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN â It was with a bittersweet mix of sadness and warm memories that I learned of the passing of Archie MacLaughlin, 88, longtime resident caretaker â with his wife, Elizabeth â of Casey Farm.
They had celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this past April.

October 14, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

To acknowledge womenâs struggles and triumphs over cancer, women business owners have planned a number of local events for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
In Coventry, Marsha Leveille will host a reception from 4-8 p.m. Oct. 19 at her shop The Clothesline, in the Coventry Shoppers Park on Flat River Road.
The open house is in honor of her mother, Marilyn, who died of cancer and the complications of dementia in late August.

October 13, 2011

The North Kingstown School Committee is getting ready to join the Town Council Monday night in a special joint meeting to discuss the FY2013 budget but, before that could take place, it was time to talk NECAP test scores and the Jamestown tuition contract.
This week, the Standard Times has you covered with the latest news from the School Committee, not to mention a recap of the end of the Kimberly Fry trial, a handful of special exclusive features and all the features you've come to know and love about our paper.
Pick up a copy today!

October 12, 2011

I suppose medical records privacy laws prevent us from finding out if Linc Chafee was kicked in the head back when he was shoeing horses for a living. If that were the case, perhaps it would explain his addle-brained response to a reporterâs question on Tuesday of last week.
The question was how âundocumented studentsâ (i.e., the children brought into this country illegally by their parents) were supposed to pay tuition at Rhode Islandâs state colleges.

October 11, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN â The music is pulsating, the sound of iron clangs like an army of bots playing tackle football and, everywhere, men are sweating and flexing.
If it were anywhere else, this would clearly qualify as a man cave.
But itâs the West Bay Family YMCA and this roomful of guys can be forgiven for really, really enjoying themselves: the room was gutted and repainted and all its equipment is new, as are the treadmills and other apparatus in the cardio center.

October 10, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN â The music is pulsating, the sound of iron clangs like an army of bots playing tackle football and, everywhere, men are sweating and flexing.
If it were anywhere else, this would clearly qualify as a man cave.
But itâs the West Bay Family YMCA and this roomful of guys can be forgiven for really, really enjoying themselves: the room was gutted and repainted and all its equipment is new, as are the treadmills and other apparatus in the cardio center.

October 9, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN â When John Pattersonâs parents moved to town in the early 1940s, the first place they lived when he was a small child was in a house next door to the Davisville Free Library.
In retrospect that experience seems like a foretelling of things to come.
âMy father was a professional wrestler known as Jake âThunderboltâ Patterson after a hold he created called The Thunderbolt. In the off-season he was an ironworker and we came here so he and my mother could work at the Navy bases.

October 8, 2011

NORTH KINGSTOWNâAfter a three-month examination of the townâs animal ordinance, the North Kingstown Town Council voted Monday night to scrap plans that would have restricted the number of dogs that its residents are allowed to have in their homes.
Citing a reluctance to âinfringe on the rights of citizensâ, the council voted 5-0 to shelve the change in language that would have imposed a three-dog limit on the number of licensed dogs per household.